National Park Service seeks ideas for managing crush of visitors at Zion

Zion National Park is being overrun, and officials there are searching for solutions from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. Annual visitation has increased by about 1 million since 2010, and park is on track this year to see a record 4 million tourists.

By HENRY BREAN LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

October 22, 2016 - 6:01 am

Petita Abblitt, 63, takes in the view of the canyon below while hiking Angels Landing, a 5-mile round-trip trail that climbs 1,500 feet up to the peak, in Utah's Zion National Park. (Rachel Crosby/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

The National Park Service turns 100 Thursday, and park sites across the region are celebrating with free admission, including Zion National Park. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

People walk along the Virgin River while hiking the Narrows at Zion National Park in Utah on Monday, Sept. 7, 2015. Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @csstevensphoto

A line of hikers scrambles toward the peak of Angels Landing during the last half-mile stretch of the strenuous trail in Utah's Zion National Park. (Brett Le Blanc/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

A crowd waits to get on a shuttle at Zion National Park on July 25, 2015. The National Park Service is now developing a visitor use management plan for the park in response to an overwhelming surge in tourism. (Zion National Park)

A crowd waits to get on a shuttle at Zion National Park on July 25, 2015. The National Park Service is now developing a visitor use management plan for the park in response to an overwhelming surge in tourism. (Zion National Park)

Hikers wait their turn to climb to the top of Angels Landing at Zion National Park on March 12. Since 2010, the park in Utah, 160 miles northeast of Las Vegas, has seen its annual visitation increase by almost 75 percent to more than 3.6 million. (Zion National Park)

The National Park Service turns 100 Thursday, and park sites across the region are celebrating with free admission, including Zion National Park. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

People walk along the Virgin River while hiking the Narrows at Zion National Park in Utah on Monday, Sept. 7, 2015. Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @csstevensphoto

A view of Zion National Park as seen from the Kayenta Trail on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2015. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) Follow @csstevensphoto

Leaves turning colors along the Virgin River in Zion National Park on Saturday, Nov.8, 2014. Early November is the best time to enjoy the fall foliage in the park.(Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Leaves turning near the Zion Canyon Visitor Center on Saturday, Nov.8, 2014. Early November is the best time to enjoy the fall foliage in the park.(Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

People walk along the Virgin River while hiking the Narrows at Zion National Park in Utah on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7, 2015. Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @csstevensphoto

Zion National Park is being overrun, and officials there are searching for solutions from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City.

Visitation increased by almost 1 million people between 2010 and 2015, when a record 3.7 million people toured the park 160 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

This year, which marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, Zion is on track to top 4 million visitors.

Aly Baltrus, the park’s chief of interpretation and visitor services, said a host of ideas are being considered to manage the crush, including limits on the number of people allowed into Zion’s most congested areas at certain times.

“It’s very hard for the Park Service to think about things like this. We never want to turn anyone away,” Baltrus said.

Similar open houses will follow on Tuesday in Hurricane, Utah; Wednesday in Springdale, Utah, and at Zion Lodge in the park; Thursday in Cedar City, Utah; Friday in Salt Lake City; and Nov. 1 in Kanab, Utah.

“The more input we get, the better our plan will be,” Baltrus said.

Ideas already on the table include a reservation system or timed entry schedule to get into the canyon, a modified shuttle schedule and campsites doled out by reservation only.

“It’s not going to be just one answer,” Baltrus said.

The national park covers almost 147,000 acres, but nearly all of the visitation is concentrated in one core area: the roughly five miles of road leading into Zion Canyon.

Traffic grew so congested there that in 2000 the Park Service began closing the canyon to passenger vehicles and forcing visitors onto shuttles through the busy summer months.

That worked for a while, but in recent years, the length and severity of the busy season have grown, overwhelming park amenities and the canyon itself.

“Yesterday it was a 45-minute wait to get on the shuttle,” Baltrus said. “You never saw shuttle lines until 2013, and that was only on busy weekends.”

The shuttles used to operate from April to October. This year, they started in mid-March and are set to run through the end of November. “And next year they’ll probably start even earlier,” Baltrus said.

The solution is not as simple as adding more shuttles. For one thing, Baltrus said, the park is already using all the shuttles it has, and the canyon can handle only so many people at a time.

As it is, a shuttle carrying up to 68 visitors is sent up the canyon every four minutes. “We’re moving a heck of a lot of people,” Baltrus said. “The shuttles alone can’t build us out of it.”

Meanwhile, at peak times on the park’s famed Angels Landing Trail, hikers are forced to line up in precarious places, waiting for traffic to clear.

The Park Service will be gathering suggestions and comments on how to handle the congestion at Zion through Nov. 23. Specific input and ideas can be submitted at one of the open houses or online at parkplanning.nps.gov/Zion.

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